202 PHYSICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART I. 



are frequently mentioned as having been cast away in the 

 South Sea. Thus they came, by a long involuntary sea-voyage, 

 1690, to Manilla, 1 in 1832 to Oahu, 2 in 1833 to Point Grenaille, 

 H north of the mouth of the Columbia river; 3 and Humboldt 

 has shown that to proceed from Asia to America, without pass- 

 ing beyond the 55th degree of N". lat., did not require more 

 than a sea-voyage of twenty-four to thirty-six hours. 4 Still 

 more decisive is the agreement of language, tradition, manners, 

 and religion prevailing in Polynesia, from the Sandwich islands 

 to New Zealand ; so that the assumption of a different descent 

 of these island populations cannot be admitted. Thus the dif- 

 ficulties of migration cannot be adduced as a proof in favour 

 of the theory that mankind have originated in one particular 

 spot. 



On the other hand, the positive proofs in favour of the de- 

 scent of humanity from a single pair are scanty in the extreme. 

 Without wishing to enter into any discussion with those who 

 have faith in the narration of the Old Testament, the assump- 

 tion of a single pair appears to us very improbable, as nature 

 would scarcely hang the existence and preservation of any 

 species on so slender a thread as a single pair of human beings. 

 It is true that the ground against descent from a single pair 

 rests only on a teleological, and not on a physical or physio- 

 logical basis, still it is the principal ground which presents 

 itself. Though the possibility of the descent of mankind from 

 a single pair may be admitted by the analogy of many domestic 

 animals imported into America, which have greatly multiplied 

 from one or a few pairs, 5 there is nothing gained by it for 

 its reality as regards man. Smith and others endeavour 

 to show that the theory of descent from a single pair is prefer- 

 able to the opposite assumption, inasmuch as we should not, 

 without absolute necessity, multiply causes, and because one 

 miracle is more acceptable than many ; but it is clear that a mul- 



1 G. Careri, " Voy. autour du naonde," v. p. 64, 1719. 



2 Bennet, " Narrative of a whaling voyage/' i, p. 242 ; Jarves, " Hist, of the 

 Sandwich islands," p. 27 ; Wilkes, v, p. 260. 



3 Wilkes, iv, p. 295. 



4 " Neu-Spanien," ii, p. 273 ; compare also, " Hist, de la geogr. du Nouveau 

 Continent," ii, p. 607, 1836. 



5 Giebel, " Tagesfr. aus d. Natgesch.," 1857. 



